Review: (500) Days of Summer

*****

“Tender Hearts Were Made to Be Broken” Athos from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.

It’s like somebody broke open the heart of every over-emotional, over thinking, neurotic young person and plastered it across the big screen. 500 Days of summer is an ode to those of whom Dumas speaks in the quote above. To anybody that has ever been in a relationship where love felt unrequited and unequal, this is your story! This story is more than just a romance but a pattern of thought and a way of life condensed into a 95 minute film.

The film itself, thoughtful while simultaneously comedic, focuses on the relationship of Tom and Summer. This film shares the emotional side of men through the unaccomplished life of Tom, an architecture student by training but greeting card writer by profession. Tom, destined from childhood to be a hopeless romantic, meets Summer at work on her first day and convinces himself that they are meant to be together based on various mutual interests. As time progresses Tom and Summer have separate perspectives on the relationship, Tom believing that they were destined to be together, Summer becoming fed up with their romance. Summer eventually breaks up with him and so begins the path of self discovery, pain and eventual acceptance with a thrust towards a promising future that is 500 Days of summer! I definitely recommend this film to those tender hearts that are frequently being broken and yet recognize that that is characteristic of them.